Patrick John Carcer

2012-09029-MN-0

1. What is cultural anthropology?

Cultural anthropology is the study of living peoples, their beliefs, practices,
values, ideas, technologies, economies and more. Through a variety of
theoretical approaches and research methods, anthropologists today study
the cultures of people in any part of the world-- including those of industrial
and "post-industrial" societies. It is also, is a branch of anthropology focused
on the study of cultural variation among humans and is in contrast to social
anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of the
anthropological constant.
2. Branches of Cultural anthropology
The branch of Anthropology that focuses on human behavior.It further divides
into three branches.
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language
influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the
endeavor to document endangered languages, and has grown over the past
100 years to encompass almost any aspect of language structure and use. In
this branch the social scientists' studies about the characteristics,
importance, development and their intellectuals. They also studied about the
rules of language and the basic components of Language.
For example, if we see in English Language we will see the name of great
intellectuals who made the theories and the rules of grammar like Noam
Chomsky describe the Learning Approach Theory and Michael and other
persons made the rules of grammar.
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology is the study of human activity in the past, primarily
through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental
data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts
(also known as eco-facts) and cultural landscapes (the archaeological record).
Because archaeology employs a wide range of different procedures, it can be
considered to be both a social science and a humanity, and in the United States
it is thought of as a branch of anthropology, although in Europe it is viewed as a
separate discipline.
Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the

characteristics of different peoples and the relationship between them
(cf. Cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology).

3. History of Cultural anthropology

4. What is culture
Word culture is taken from the Latin word cultural which means to
cultivate. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn
compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: a Critical
Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is
most commonly used in three basic senses:
Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high
culture
An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that
depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social
learningThe set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that
characterizes an institution, organization or group
Culture includes socially acquired knowledge, beliefs, art, law,
morals,customs, and habits. (Edward B Taylor)
5. Evolution of culture
People have long been aware of cultural differences among societies. Some of
the earliest accounts of culture come from the Greek historian Herodotus,
who lived in the 400s BC. Herodotus traveled through the Persian Empire,
which included much of the Middle East and surrounding parts of Asia and
Africa. He wrote at length about the cultural and racial diversity of these
places, much of which he linked to differences in peoples environments.For
almost 2000 years following the time of Herodotus, many people attributed
cultural differences to racial inheritance. The biblical account of the Tower of
Babel, in which God caused people to speak new languages, also provided an
explanation for cultural diversity. At the end of the Middle Ages (5th to 15th
century A.D.), many countries of Western Europe began sending explorers
around the world to find new sources of material goods and wealth. Prolonged
contact with new cultures during these travels sparked Europeans interest in
the sources and meaning of cultural diversity.The English term culture
actually came into use during the Middle Ages. It derived from the Latin word
for cultivation, as in the practice of nurturing domesticated plants in gardens.
Thus, the word originally referred to peoples role in controlling nature.
6. Kinds of culture
There are many different kinds of culture, but culture is generally divided into
two different types: material culture and non-material culture. Material

culture is similar to class status. An example of material culture is buying

expensive cars, jewelry and clothing reflect an elite status within a
community. Non-material culture is derived from intangible things such as
beliefs, traditions and values.
Material Culture-- All societies produce and exchange material goods so that
people can feed, clothe, shelter, and otherwise provide for themselves. This
system is commonly known as an economy. Anthropologists look at several
aspects of peoples material culture. These aspects include:
(1) The methods by which people obtain or produce food, known as a pattern
of subsistence
(2) The ways in which people exchange goods and services
(3) The kinds of technologies and other objects, people make and use
(4) The effects of peoples economy on the natural environment.
Social Culture-- People in all types of societies organize themselves in relation
to each other to work and other duties, and to structure their interactions.
People commonly organize themselves according to:
(1) Kinship and Marriage
(2) Work
(3) Political position
7. Characteristic of culture
Everything has its characteristics likewise culture has also its own
characteristics that make it different from others and made it easy to
understand. Following are the characteristics of the culture.i.Culture is
SymbolicSymbols allow people to develop complex thoughts and exchange
those thoughts with others.People have culture primarily because they can
communicate with and understand symbols. A symbol has either an indirect
connection or no connection at all with the object, idea, feeling, or behavior
to which it refers. For instance, most people in the United States find some
meaning in the combination of the colors red, white, and blue. But those
colors themselves have nothing to do with, for instance, the land that people
call the United States, the concept of patriotism, or the U.S. national anthem,
The Star Spangled Banner.To convey new ideas, people constantly invent new
symbols, such as in mathematical formulas. In addition, people may use one
symbol, such as a single word, to represent many different ideas, feelings, or
values. Thus, symbols provide a flexible way for people to communicate even
very complex thoughts with each other.For example, only through symbols
can architects, engineers, and construction workers communicate the
information necessary to construct a skyscraper or a bridge.
8. Components of culture
Cultures vary from one another and it shares four major components, these
are the communication, cognitive, material and behavioral aspects.

Communication components include language and symbols. Through having

a language, a group of people interact with one another, socially sharing their
thoughts, feelings or ideas to the people with the same language.
Language forms the core of all cultures throughout society. The symbols are
considered as the backbone of symbolic interactions. A symbol might be
considered as anything that holds a particular meaning and are recognized by
the people that shares the same culture. Different cultures have different
symbols, it is cross-cultural and it might be change over a period of time.
The second major component of culture is the cognitive component. It
includes Ideas, Knowledge and Belief, Values and Accounts.
Ideas, Knowledge and Belief are basic units of knowledge construction. Ideas
are considered as mental representation and are used to organize stimulus.
When Ideas are linked together, it will organize into larger systems of
information which will become knowledge.
Knowledge now is considered as a storage of information fact or assumption,
and this knowledge can be passed down from one generation to another.

Belief on the other hand, assumes that a proposition, statement, description

of fact is true in nature. These acceptance was influenced by the external
authorities such as government, religion, or science rather than proven true
from the individual's direct experiences.
Values serve as guidelines for social living. Culturally, it can be defined as the
standards of desirability, goodness and beauty.
The accounts are considered to be a way on how people use the language for
their explanation, justification, or to rationalize, excuse, or legitimize a
behavior towards themselves or to the others.
The third major component of culture is the behavioral components.
Behavioral component is the major component of culture that is concerned
about on how we act. It includes norms which further categorize int Mores,
Laws, Folkway, and Rituals.
Norms are considered as rules and expectations eventually set by a particular
society that serve as guides to the behavior of its members. It varies in the
terms of the degrees of importance and might be change over a period of
time. It is reinforced by sanctions in the forms or rewards and punishments.

These standards are accepted by society culturally and serves as obligatory

and expected behavior's of the people in different situations in life.
Morals are the kinds of norms that are considered to be as a customary
behavior patterns which have taken from a moral value.
Laws serve as the formal and important norms that translated into legal
formalizations. Folkways are considered as behavioral patterns of a particular
society that is repetitive and organize. Rituals on the other hand, are those
highly scripted ceremonies of interactions which follows a sequence of
actions. Examples are baptism, holidays and more.
The fourth major component of culture is the Material component. This
includes materials or objects created by humans for practical use or for
artistic reasons. These objects are called as material culture. Material
components serve as an expression of an individual culture.
9. How can we evaluate culture
10.Look for the following:
a. Subculture
Subculture refers to a group of people who hold opposing beliefs or
behave differently than the majority of people in their community.
Members of a subculture also often create a language that is distinct from
the majority. Consequently, this smaller community establishes a culture
that may ostracize them from the rest of society.
b. Counterculture
Counterculture is a movement to actively defy one or more aspects of
dominant culture.
c. Culture shock
Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when
experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a
new country, a move between social environments, or simply travel to
another type of life. One of the most common causes of culture shock
involves individuals in a foreign environment. Culture shock can be
described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases:
Honeymoon, Negotiation, Adjustment, and Mastery.
The most common problems include: information overload, language
barrier, generation gap, technology gap, skill interdependence,
formulation dependency, homesickness (cultural), infinite regress
(homesickness), boredom (job dependency), response ability (cultural skill
set). There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals
in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differently.

d. Cultural selection
A cultural selection theory is a scientific discipline that explores
sociological and cultural evolution the same way that Darwinian selection
theory is used to explain biological evolution. There are three obvious
concepts to Cultural Selection. The three concepts are social contagion
theory, evolutionary epistemology, and memetics.
e. Ecocentrism
A philosophy or perspective that places intrinsic value on all living
organisms and their natural environment, regardless of their perceived
usefulness or importance to human beings.
f.

Xenocentrism
Xenocentrism is the preference for the products, styles, or ideas of
someone else's culture rather than of one's own.The concept is considered
a subjective view of cultural relativism. One example is the
romanticization of the noble savage in the 18th-century primitivism
movement in European art, philosophy and ethnography.

Reference
https://knoji.com/the-four-components-of-culture/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27343362/What-is-Cultural-Anthropology-Branches-ofAnthropology